When I work with Women of Faith, I probably talk to anything from 15- to 20,000 women a weekend. They are dying to hear somebody tell their story out loud and not self-combust, to bring all the secrets out of the shadow into Gods light.

My times of silence before God are very important to me now. I put everything else down, every word away, and I am with the Lord. When I'm quiet, life falls into perspective for me. I have a very active mind and I'm a worrier, but in those moments when I choose to put that away, I rest beside the Shepherd in still places. Why don't you give yourself a gift today? Turn off the television or the car stereo, put down the newspaper or the business plan, and in the quietness, rest for a while beside the Shepherd of your soul.

It takes deliberate and continuous effort to carve out time in our overfull schedules to listen to the voice of God.

The Father is truly the only Promise Maker who is in earnest a Promise Keeper. A promise from God is a promise kept.

When depression or suicidal thoughts weigh heavily, the hardest thing to do is to fight. My battle weapons are the Word of God, meditation, confession, community, and worship. But each evening I take my medication with a prayer of thanksgiving that God has provided this kind of help for those of us who need it.

But the witness of the substitutionary atonement of Jesus is that God's most difficult promise has been kept.

God has promised that whatever you face, you are not alone. He knows your pain. He loves you. And He will bring you through the fire.